It’s not just peaches and aubergines – other emojis have hidden meanings too

Pizza and penguins are regularly used to show love, but getting a bathtub emoji is much less pleasant

By Sun Reporter

14th February 2018, 1:33 am

Updated: 15th February 2018, 5:00 am

Forget flowers this Valentine's day, the new way to say 'I love you' is with a penguin or pizza emoji.

The popular digital symbols are being used in personal "secret" languages as revealed in a new study.

Getty - Contributor

Many couples use emojis as a secret code

Researchers at Goldsmiths University in London uncovered a mixture of affectionate and sinister symbolism in the icons' "special meanings".

The research paper, ' Why 🍕 means "I love you"' found that in secret emoji-languages, pizza and cheese stood for signs of affection after a mutual love of the food between recipients.

They also found that a bathtub emoji represents death and six per cent of texters use emojis to symbolise criminal activity and sex.

In an online survey, the team investigated how individuals personalise emoji to create unrelated meanings and found that nearly half of the meanings were between lovers, who most commonly referred to each other through penguins.

These alternative meanings can be assigned randomly but can become permanent and are used consistently over time between partners, friends, or family members.

Pizza, penguins and cheese all have romantic meanings

For some a bath tub represents death, while a peach can be something saucier and a heart is just boring

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The study of 134 people also found that 28 percent of users rejected conventional language and used emoji as a form of written convenience.

Back in 2016 there was a furious customer backlash against Apple for changing its peach emoji to look less like buttocks, as Apple research showed just seven percent of users referring to the foodstuff with the juicy icon.

Dr Sarah Wisema, co-author of the study said that the creators of emoji must bear in mind the subtle way that people repurpose the icons and consider the impact their design could have on alternative meanings in the future.